Traditionally, thermodynamic power generation cycles, such as the Brayton cycle, employ an ideal gas, such as atmospheric air. Such cycles are open in the sense that after the air flows through the components of the cycle, it is exhausted back to atmosphere at a relatively high temperature so that a considerable amount heat generated by the combustion of fuel is lost from the cycle. A common approach to capturing and utilizing waste heat in a Brayton cycle is to use a recuperator to extract heat from the turbine exhaust gas and transfer it, via a heat exchanger, to the air discharging from the compressor. Since such heat transfer raises the temperature of the air entering the combustor, less fuel is required to achieve the desired turbine inlet temperature. The result is improved thermal efficiencies for the overall thermodynamic cycle and generally results in efficiencies as high as about 40%. Larger turbines with more advanced blade aerodynamic design may achieve even greater efficiencies. However, even in such recuperated cycles, the thermal efficiency is limited by the fact that the turbine exhaust gas temperature can never be cooled below that of the compressor discharge air, since heat can only flow from a high temperature source to a low temperature sink. This is exacerbated by the fact that employing higher pressure ratios, which improves the efficiency of the turbine overall, results in higher compressor discharge temperature and, therefore, less heat recovery in the recuperator.
More recently, interest has arisen concerning the use of supercritical fluids, such as supercritical carbon dioxide, in closed thermodynamic power generation cycles. Advantageously, supercritical fluids—that is, a fluid at or above the “critical point” at which the liquid and gaseous phases are in equilibrium—have a density and compressibility approaching that of a liquid so that the work required to compress the fluid to the desired pressure ratio is much lower than it would be for an ideal gas, such as air.
Unfortunately, supercritical fluid cycles suffer from several disadvantages that have limited their use. First, although supercritical fluid cycles are generally closed in the sense that the supercritical fluid is returned to the cycle inlet after generating power, all of the heat necessary to return the supercritical fluid to near its critical point prior to reintroduction into the compressor cannot be efficiently converted to power, so that the supercritical fluid must be cooled by the transfer of heat to an external heat sink, prior to its reintroduction into the compressor. This cooling results in the loss of heat from the cycle and a degradation in thermal efficiency.
Second, unlike what is typically done in air-based open cycles, fossil fuel cannot be combusted in a supercritical fluid without the addition of an oxidizer and subsequent removal of the by-products of combustion from the closed cycle. Consequently, supercritical fluids have most often been proposed for use in conjunction with nuclear power plants in which the nuclear reaction provides the source of heat. Although it is possible to heat the supercritical fluid in a heat exchanger supplied with combustion gas from a conventional fossil fuel fired gas turbine, because of the inefficiency discussed above associated with the high recuperated compressor discharge temperature and the limited ability to transfer heat into the cycle from the combustion products, the use of relatively expensive fossil fuel to heat the supercritical fluid makes the use of such fuels impractical.
Third, the high pressure of the supercritical fluid, e.g., over 7.0 MPa, creates difficulties in sealing the shafting that transmits the torque developed by the supercritical fluid turbine. If the supercritical fluid cycle is used to generate electrical power, one approach is to include the electrical generator in the pressure vessel along with the turbine so that the power shaft need not penetrate the pressure vessel. However, this approach has a number of drawbacks. For example, it results in high windage losses in the generator and requires oil-less bearings. Moreover, maintenance and servicing of the electrical generator becomes more difficult. Additionally, large generators would require large pressure vessels for containment, resulting in substantial costs and creating additional points of failure. Also, such an approach cannot be used in applications in which the goal is not the production of electrical power, such as in any kind of vehicle propulsion (i.e. turboprop/turbofan applications, automotive and long haul truck drives, marine propulsion) and other applications like oil and gas industry applications including gas line booster compressors.
Fourth, the efficiency of a supercritical fluid cycle is greatly affected by slight deviations in the temperature of the supercritical fluid in the vicinity of the critical temperature. However, it is difficult to measure the temperature of the fluid with the requisite accuracy to ensure operation at maximum efficiency.
Finally, prior art supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycles typically make use of recuperation as described above; the reason being that turbine exhaust temperatures in SCO2 cycles are still very elevated and compressor discharge temperatures very low making for an ideal recipe for recuperation. This is another reason that SCO2 Brayton cycles are so efficient in nuclear and solar applications. Unfortunately, if a fossil fuel were used as the heat source, passing recuperated compressor discharge through a heat exchanger would make it difficult to pass heat into the SCO2 flow because the incoming temperature is already so high.
Therefore, the need exists for a system and method for efficiently using a supercritical fluid in a thermodynamic cycle operating on a fossil fuel and generating shaft power and/or hot water. The need also exists for an apparatus and method for effectively transmitting torque from the shaft of a supercritical fluid turbine. Further, the need exists for an accurate method of measuring the temperature of the supercritical fluid in the vicinity of the critical point.